'''Note:''' the current drivers are close to stable at the moment (2008-01-22). Occasional USB disconnects may still be experienced. The disconnects were caused by disabling the pull-down resistors or unintentional writes from the dib0700 bridge to the usb bus when accidentally hitting the end of a SOF packet. Why and when this happens can only be debugged by the dibcom firmware guys [http://www.linuxtv.org/pipermail/linux-dvb/2008-January/023123.html] . Other possible reasons for bad behavior could be bad reception (check your aerial, cabling, splitters and low-cost amplifiers) and EIT scanning. Search the [http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linux-dvb linux-dvb mailing list] for more information and current problems being experienced.

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'''Note:''' the current drivers are close to stable at the moment (2008-01-25). Occasional USB disconnects may still be experienced. The disconnects were caused by disabling the pull-down resistors or unintentional writes from the dib0700 bridge to the usb bus when accidentally hitting the end of a SOF packet. Why and when this happens can only be debugged by the dibcom firmware guys [http://www.linuxtv.org/pipermail/linux-dvb/2008-January/023123.html] . Other possible reasons for bad behavior could be bad reception (check your aerial, cabling, splitters and low-cost amplifiers) and EIT scanning. Search the [http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linux-dvb linux-dvb mailing list] for more information and current problems being experienced.

Contents

Overview/Features

In actuality, the device's receivers are USB based, but there aren't any USB plugs or sockets involved -- the single PCI card itself sports on board dual USB based receivers that interface with a host USB 2.0 controller (USB to PCI). This unique design is also known as "Bristol".

Components Used

2x Microtune MT2060 tuner

2x DiB3000P DiBcom DVB-T demodulator & USB controller

1x VIA VT8xxx host USB 2.0 controller (USB-to-PCI)

A single Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) is present for both channels, but needs to be manually activated (see below).

Identification

You will find the model name and number on the box, under the bar code. Cards known to work have the following:

WinTV-NOVA-T-500 model 289 SL-289-V2.0-UK (in the UK there is also a model 287 - according to Hauppauge UK support this is identical to the model 289 - it is just a PC World/Dixons specific box)

WinTV-NOVA-T-500 model 289 SL-289-V2.1-UK ... Note: It would appear that having V2.1 on the box could be either the Nova-T or the unsupported Nova-TD (see below). Most confusing!

List incomplete, please add

WinTV-NOVA-TD-500

Note:This is an unsupported revision !!

Warning! WinTV-Nova-TD-500

This card appears to have been released, in low volumes, only in the UK, but unfortunately it seems that Hauppauge is shipping the Diversity* card in regular NOVA-T-500 boxes!

[* The "Diversity" option is a hardware based feature that allows for the device's two receivers to be configured in a combined use mode to achieve better reception on a single channel. The diversity feature of the DiBcom demodulators is currently not implemented in the Linux-DVB drivers, so only the dual tuner configuration is presently supported on such devices [1]. ]

This newer revision can be distinguished by:On the box:

You will find the model name and number under the bar code:

WinTV-NOVA-T-500

model 289

SL-289-V2.1-UK.

The box also has a sticker stating it is the diversity option and only suitable for intel cards.

To quote one user running the device under Windows: "When i put it in my athlon based XP box it blue screened as soon as i tried to load the drivers. I brought mine from Amazon.co.uk and there was no mention that this card was any different or wouldn't work with non-intel processors."

On the card:

it is labeled with the 'Diversity' feature stickers and the actual model number on the printed circuit board is NOVA-TD-500 (WinTV-NOVA-TD-500 DVB-T 68109 LF rev C1B5)

The DiBcom DiB0710 controller used by this newer revision was apparently never sold for mass-production and DiBcom has end-of-life'd the chip. Furthermore, DiBcom currently do not plan on providing support for this controller. Consequently, given the low shipping volume and the limited support options, development of a Linux driver for this revision would likely be a waste of effort. [2][3]

Fortunately, for Linux users who have mistakingly received a Diversity variant, Hauppauge are apparently willing to exchange this product to a genuine T-500. Call the UK support line 0207 378 0200 and say you have read this article and bought your product from ebuyer, dabs or wherever.

Making it work

Firmware

August 21, 2008 - New firmware file fixing the last cause for i2c errors and disconnects and providing a new, more modular i2c request formatting.

August 29,2008 - Issues with Firmware 1.20. Some issues have been found with the latest version of the firmware. Users may wish to continue to use 1.10 unless they have patched their v4l-dvb code with dib0700_new_i2c_api.patch.

November 15,2008 - Issues with Firmware 1.20.

The above mentioned dib0700_new_12c_api.patch is not available discretely but is now rolled into the mercurial drivers

dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw firmware file is now stable for reception, but remote control functionality is broken; any key press is repeated until the next key is pressed. The only way to get remote control functionality presently is to roll back to 1.10 firmware and suffer the occasional disconnect.

The mercurial drivers have been changed so they now load 1.20 firmware. To revert to 1.10 firmware you need to rename your firmware file to dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw or provide a link of that name.

To avoid spurious remote control signals with 1.20 firmware, you need to edit /etc/modprobe.d/options or from Ubuntu onwards /etc/modprobe.d/options.confand add:

options dvb_usb disable-rc-polling=1

November 28,2008 - i2c errors.
Changes were made to the remote control drivers on November 16,2008 to correct the repeat key problem. The card is generally stable for dual tuner reception and remote control function with Firmware 1.20.

November 10,2009 - mt2060 I2C write failed.
Possible regression of a driver bug raised against Ubuntu running 2.6.27-14 and 2.6.31-2.17 causing mt2060 I2C errors in MythTV useage with firmware 1.20.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/397696
Recommend check the kernel extensions listed here for Low Noise Activation and rc_polling are loaded with correct config file name for your distribution, EIT listings information is turned off until a suitable delay (500ms-1000ms)is added to a single card (not both) and the card has correctly been added to the database as two tuners (no additional NULL entries) in the mythtv recordcard table.

Drivers

Note: These patches still haven't made it into the tree, and have not received a lot of feedback after the latest official merges. Use at your own risk if you feel that you need them.

* silence-unknown-keycodes.patch - 513 B
* When an unknown key code is received (from another remote, like the receiver's or the TV's), it is not eaten and the module keeps yelling about it. This patch stops the yelling.
* Jonas Anden
* Post: http://www.linuxtv.org/pipermail/linux-dvb/2007-August/019493.html
* Date: Thu Aug 2 00:28:17 CEST 2007
* Note: This patch does not apply cleanly on recent trees. But it is an easy one-liner to do by hand
* Note: This patch is not really a fix. It just limits the effect of a bad behavior

Note: the current drivers are close to stable at the moment (2008-01-25). Occasional USB disconnects may still be experienced. The disconnects were caused by disabling the pull-down resistors or unintentional writes from the dib0700 bridge to the usb bus when accidentally hitting the end of a SOF packet. Why and when this happens can only be debugged by the dibcom firmware guys [4] . Other possible reasons for bad behavior could be bad reception (check your aerial, cabling, splitters and low-cost amplifiers) and EIT scanning. Search the linux-dvb mailing list for more information and current problems being experienced.

Remote control

Grey top, black bottom, 45 buttons, snowboard shape.

Support for the tuners on the card was implemented earlier than support for the remote control - as a result you may find the tuners work but the IR-receiver for the remote control is not detected. You can check the installed version of the driver has detected the remote control by looking in the 'dmesg' output for a line similar to:

input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /class/input/inputX

(where X will vary depending in your system configuration).

Additionally, the IR receiver will be listed if you execute the command:

If the IR receiver is not detected but you can see the detection of the tuners (see earlier in this page) then you will need to patch your kernel with the latest mercurial v4l-dvb sources (see [5]).
This was required even with Gentoo kernel 2.6.23-r3.

The remote control gives output into

/dev/input/eventX

where X is variable and depends on your system.

LIRC will use it without needing a special kernel module. use the following driver: